Ash Haley is a genderfluid kid starting seventh grade at Oakmont Middle School. Daniel Sanders is a sensitive eighth-grader who volunteers to walk dogs at the vet. When Daniel rescues Chewbarka, an elderly Pomeranian, from being euthanized, Ash helps him care for her and hide her from adults. Ash and Daniel start to fall in love, but there's a problem - Daniel thinks Ash is a girl.
Both Can Be True contains examples of:
- AM/FM Characterization: At first Ash listens to classical music only when they're a girl, and hard rock only when they're a boy. Later they realize that their dad has made them feel like everything they do has to be gendered, and there's no reason they can't listen to "girl music" as a boy or vice versa.
- Blackmail: Chewbarka's former owner has a daughter named Bella McBrenner who goes to Oakmont. When Bella finds out that her beloved dog hasn't really been euthanized, she digs up the Gatorade video and threatens to send it to the entire school if Ash doesn't tell her where Chewbarka is. Ash can't tell her because then her dad would find out, take Chewbarka back, and have her killed. Just as Bella is about to send the video, their friends Griffey, Sam, and Esme confront her for sharing bullying videos, letting everyone know Ash's deadname, and committing blackmail. Bella feels guilty and backs down. Later, once Chewbarka is in a safe home, Daniel takes Bella to visit her, but only after making sure she won't mention it to her dad.
- Commonality Connection: Zoey, Olivia, and Jordan, the members of the punk band Tyrannosaurus Rocks, became best friends in sixth grade because they all like punk, hate country, have a younger sister and an older brother, and are good at math.
- D-Cup Distress: Zoey hates having large breasts because of the way boys stare at her. She tells Olivia, "Trust me, this is a problem you do not want. Every guy looks at me like I'm a piece of meat."
- Disappeared Dad: Daniel's dad moved out in August. He was supposed to visit the family on weekends, but mostly hasn't. The official reason he left was so his commute would be shorter, but Daniel and his identical twin Mitch know it's really a trial separation.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: A few months ago, Ash, who was presenting as a girl at the time, had a crush on Tyler, who had just moved into their old apartment complex. Ash's dog Booper growled at him, but Ash was attracted to him anyway. When Tyler found out Ash was genderfluid, he and some local bullies jumped them before school, pinned them to the ground, and poured purple Gatorade up their nose.
- Held Back in School: During their first attempt at sixth grade, Ash missed a month of school due to appendicitis, and while they were in the hospital, their parents split up. Both of those distractions caused them to flunk the year, which is why they're still in seventh grade at almost fourteen.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: Ash's well-meaning friend Camille filmed the Gatorade attack and posted it online in an attempt to force the school to put a stop to the bullying. When Ash confronted her over it, she took it down, but by that point Tyler and his friend Jackson had already downloaded and reposted it to brag about what they'd done. The video went viral. Things got so bad that Ash and their mom moved to a new school district.
- Lost Pet Grievance: Daniel is grieving for his border collie Frankie, who had to be put down in July.
- Phone Word: Ash's phone number is 555-3265, which spells "DANK." Their best friend Griffey is jealous because his number only spells "LAMP."
- Prone to Tears: Daniel cries over everything from awkward situations at school to dog food commercials. His mom tells him he needs to grow out of it, which only makes him feel more like crying.
- Secret Pet Plot: Daniel keeps Chewbarka in a tent in a small patch of woods. He steals dog food and diapers from the vet.
- Sleep Deprivation: Daniel becomes so exhausted from Sneaking Out at Night to take care of Chewbarka that his grades suffer.
- Spin the Bottle: Daniel has been fighting with Mitch and has fallen out with his best friend Cole because during a game of Spin the Bottle, he kissed Fiona Jones, the girl Mitch and Cole both liked.
- Switching P.O.V.: Ash and Daniel narrate alternating chapters.
- Title Drop: Ash writes a song that they hope will be "a light in the dark for anyone who feels like they have to be one thing or the other when both can be true."
- Twin Switch: Fiona is friends with Daniel but not Mitch, so Mitch comes up with a plan for Daniel to ask her to meet him so Mitch can show up instead and woo her. Daniel protests that Fiona already has a boyfriend, but when Mitch threatens to tell their mom that he's been sneaking in late at night smelling like pee, Daniel agrees to do it. Fiona sees right through the deception and is furious at both of them.
- Unishment: Ash gets lunch detention for wearing socks with swear words on them, but the detention room is so peaceful and quiet compared to the cafeteria that they wish they could get detention every day.
- "Which Restroom?" Dilemma: On Ash's first day at Oakmont, they can't decide whether to use the boys', girls', or gender-neutral restroom. They're afraid that if they use the neutral bathroom the other kids will think they're a freak, and if they use either of the gendered bathrooms, everyone will think they're either Ashley or Asher forever. Ash is about to use the neutral bathroom when they see Daniel, who as far as they know is straight. They go in the girls' room instead, even though they've been feeling more like a boy lately.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?:
- Ash's dad claims to be a trans ally, but he spends most of his visits with Ash nagging them to pick a gender. He calls them a naive child who doesn't understand the concept of trans.
- Griffey's religious mom thinks he's going to Hell for being gay.
- Esme, a girl in Oakmont's Rainbow Alliance, buys girl clothes in secret, hides them at home, and changes into them in the school bathroom so her parents won't find out. She worked all summer to afford makeup, but when her dad finds it, he throws it out. He threatens to send her to live with her aunt in Texas if he ever finds out she's dressing like a girl again.
